Curatorial Assistant for the Department of Contemporary Art, Elisabeth Smith previews City as Canvas: New York City Graffiti from the 70's & 80's at the Indianapolis Museum of Art on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2017.
Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

Robert Gulaczyk portrays Vincent Van Gogh in “Loving Vincent,” a film made entirely of oil paintings.(Photo: Provided by Blue Integrated Communications)

Artist Pamela Bliss, known for her local murals of Kurt Vonnegut and Indiana jazz icons, spent much of 2017 in Gdansk, Poland.

When she wasn't dipping her feet in the Baltic Sea, Bliss lived out another dream: painting for a full-length feature film.

"Loving Vincent" quite literally paints a portrait of Dutch post-impressionist artist Vincent Van Gogh. The animation — a compilation of 65,000 oil paintings — tells the story of his life with scenes of European countrysides and his distinctive painting style and color palette.

Bliss, one of 10 U.S. artists to work on the film, will answer audience questions following two local screenings of "Loving Vincent" at 7:15 p.m. Friday and 4:15 p.m. Saturday at Landmark Keystone Art.

The Indiana University-trained artist painted the Vonnegut mural on Massachusetts Avenue and the jazz tribute on the south side of Musicians' Repair & Sales, 332 N. Capitol Ave.

Answer: It’s been six years in the making. They needed to get it done for a final push, so they invited some international artists to come in and help out with the final production. They sent a call out and I applied. Out of 5,000 applications, they chose about 35 to 40 international artists. They already had about 80 artists that had been working on it off and on.

Q: What was the application process like to work for the film?

A: Actually, it was very simple. There was a trailer that went out and at the end of the trailer, there was a call for artists to work on the film. So I just sent my portfolio and my information and they looked at the quality of my work. Now some of the artists, they chose them for their animation experience, but they also had to have painting skills too. I didn’t have animation experience, but my skill level as far as portraiture was very high, according to their standards. So that’s one reason they selected me because getting the faces right was very important to the film.

Q: How labor-intensive was working on the film?

A: Oh my gosh. It was like very intensive because we were painting all day long. We all went into this giant warehouse, but we had our own cubicles because we had to submit the images into a computer system so they could be edited. So the computer had a very detailed registration on color. So from one day to the next, we had to have our colors the same, so we had to be in these little cubicles that had no windows and had to keep the drapes shut and that kind of thing. A slight difference in lighting made a huge difference in the color. I would wear a shirt from one day to the next and if it had too much white on it, the reflection from the shirt would change the color. That’s how much detail the registration would pick up that we had to consider. It was an amazing experience. It was stressful and amazing at the same time.

A: It was very odd because they just told me right at the last minute that I had made the cut. So I only had like 10 days to prepare, and I didn’t know any Polish at all. So thankfully, some of the younger people knew a little bit of English from school, so outside I was able to communicate fairly well. Inside (the warehouse), they did English. That was one of the criteria; you had to fluent in either Polish or English because both were spoken in the warehouse. But I was able to go out afterwards and explore a little bit. The landscape looked exactly like Indiana, but we were by the Baltic Sea, so I was able to go to the beach sometimes on my time off.

Q: What drew you to work on the film? Was it the work of Van Gogh or something else?

A: I think any artist would be honored to be able to paint for or about Van Gogh. When we were over there, we all knew that we were painting something special because it is about Van Gogh and it was the very first time this had ever been done as well. But another aspect was I’m an artist and I’m a painter and when do you ever get the chance to work on a film with those credentials? It’s not very often, so I was very excited to be able to do something in my field and help produce a film. To be able to do my art form fully, it was a very unique opportunity.